Leaf drivers - Keep in mind that if you drive from Tucson to Tubac, it's about 40 to 60 miles (depending on where you start out in Tucson) *uphill* and that your last charge spot is in Sahuarita, about 27 miles (estimating off the top of my head) north of Tubac. I personally avoid going on I-19 and take Old Nogales Highway and Frontage Road to the East of I-19 (study the map before you leave the house, there are one or two confusing spots where you can lose a bar or two struggling to find your way, if you don't watch out). I don't want to ruin anyone's day with my over-paranoia about not getting stranded, but if you want to err on the safe side for the first trip only, then the two basic measures to take would be:

- avoid I-19 and go on frontage/Old Nogales Highway, where the going-rate-of-traffic speeds are generally 20-30 mph less.- driving south, for safety maybe top off a bit when you reach Sahuarita. (It's possible that I'm being too careful about this and the drive from Tucson striaght through to Tubac @ 50 mph is very do-able, but this is my err-on the-side-of-not-being-stranded certainty method. I have not done the Tucson-to-Tubac route myself yet).

Hey Folks,My mother-in-law finally spent some time in my LEAF during a recent extended visit and is considering getting one. She lives in Vail and makes regular trips into Tuscon in her ICE cars. She'd like to talk to someone from Tuscon about life with the LEAF there. If you're willing to talk to her please send me a PM. Thx!

I heard on the EVAZ call this past week that there are plans for GoE3 to open the new DCQC at I-10 and Speedway this week. I don't see it yet on the chargepoint.com map or elsewhere, but will keep my fingers crossed. It was said that the Blink DCQC that was there, which was never operational, was removed and replaced. If this comes about, then it is great progress.

The Tucson Electric Vehicle Association meets the morning of the third Saturday of each month. Unless otherwise noted, the regular meeting time is 9:00AM to 11:00AM and the location is typically the University of Arizona Medical Center (UAMC) at 1501 N. Campbell Avenue.

and then on Sunday Sep 21 there will be plug-in day event at 3330 E Speedway (in the back parking lot in the area of the DCQC that is there).

fwiw, my understanding of status on the 5 DC quick charge stations around Tucson, mostly CHAdeMO, but one possible working SAE.

From asking around, not from visiting the stations myself (though I did visit a few, about a month ago, and left comments on plugshare.com)

- Jim Click Nissan, ABB Equipment - no new information, but working fine as far as I know (but, to repeat: located behind the dealership fence so that we cannot use it 24x7x365).

- GoE3 3330 Speedway Bookman's Eaton equipment: I'm told CHAdeMO is working fine, expect SAE to be working maybe in Q1 2015. This is not just a matter of replacing a bad connector, or any other part, or something like that. It will be a major piece of work, and that is the reason why it is not just getting fixed.

- GoE3 Speedway AM/PM:I'm told that there is something wrong with the internet to the station at the moment, but that it is being worked on, and that both CHAdeMO and SAE are now working ****but "inconsistently"****. I am concerned that "inconsistently" (what I'm told) could end up being "zero" for some user, so ***please*** don't anyone "bet" on thisby showing up at the station and absolutely having to charge. I am 60 miles away, or I would test it. I'm thinking in the next few weeks one of the Tucson Leaf or BMW drivers will give it a try, but will be careful to plan ahead and not get stranded if it doesn't work. PlugShare reports someone indicating lack of success there a couple of weeks ago, and then someone anonymously having a successful charge soon after. So, the situation is not clear yet.

- For Both Picacho Peak & Casa Grande. These are the only two CHAdeMO stations allowing for reasonably quick travel betweenTucson and Phoenix (unless one has a Tesla in which case thereis the Casa Grande supercharger). For both stations, I do nothave solid information. The best information should come from a driver who has recently tried these stations. The information on PlugShare.com seems useful, but I have not seen anything super-recent.

Notes:There are indications that Picacho Peak and Casa Grande will be fixed and improved over the coming months. I will try to follow the plugshare.com comments of any Phoenix/Tucson drivers, since they are the ones who know what these are about.

It's a decent mixture of Leaf, do-it-yourself EVs, once in awhile a Tesla driver, etc. There's at least one BMW driver and I'm not sure about Volt and others. I go once in awhile, but not often.

They have played the central role in putting on the Tucson area portion of the national EV day/week event and have done a really good job. This year was successful in part because the climate change march ended at the event (by agreement) and kind of combined the enthusiasm of the two crowds. Unfortunately I wasn't there to see that portion of the day, but I'm told it got so excellent that the cops were called, with some neighbors mistakenly thinking that the enthusiasm was negative, but it wasn't, it was just wildly successful in its way and I think everyone realized the misperception.

The organizers of the EV event were I think very smart to work with the climate change march/sustainability folks in Tucson to figure out a way to combine things just that bit at the end. If not, the two events might have divided the focus of the area's sustainability-minded folks that day.

Good news, a user named Paul posted on plugshare.com this week that he had successfully used the SAE connection at the new DC Quick Charge Station at AM/PM. This is not to say that anyone should yet trust it and go all-in assuming either the SAE or CHAdeMO will work, until we get more information. There had been reports of a hardware issue with the SAE connector (which now appears addressed) and as well of a serious problem with the internet/billing/processing, but we now have at least that one positive initial SAE experience (the first ever non-testing-period SAE charge experience in Tucson?).

Apparently, going by facebook and my conversation with GoE3, they have indicated that on 12 May there will be a grand opening event spanning from the state capitol and proceeding to Casa Grande, Picacho Peak, AM/PM at I-10 and Speedway in Tucson, and then there will be a TEDx talk and some sort of party.

GoE3 indicated it is ok for me to pass along that their intention is for the Casa Grande and Picacho Peak DC Quick charge stations will both be working by then (based I think on the new station hardware they are using at I-10 and Speedway, which I think is this manufacturer):

I know, we've been through various claims from GoE3 before. We can see on plugshare.com that there are some drivers who have had really bad experiences, but GoE3 is still around and (not ignoring their past failings) I think it would be fantastic if they execute on this. It will turn things around, at least in that corridor. I guess I'm allowing myself some optimism in part because I've used the station at I-10 and Speedway and really liked it. Impossible for me to say if it will hold up over the years, but for now I was glad to see it work well.